There are spicy meatballs, and there are spicy meatballs -- and now there's a figure that will be tossed around for decades to come, one which will instantly represent the caution companies should take when embarking on another format war: a billion dollars. At least that's what Nikkei is reporting that Toshiba's losses on HD DVD totaled in 2007 alone: a ¥100b, or about $982m USD. It won't drive Toshiba under or anything, but you seriously have to ask yourself, was it really all worth it? [Warning: subscription req'd]

-- Engadget HD

I don't know if it was worth it. Sony reportetly paid $400 million to warner in order to make them drop HD.. They will see some return of the money eventually. If you check amazons hitlists though, there are currently a lot more HD-DVD's sold than Blu Ray Discs. At least for the consumer it kind of paid off. Only 1 format left and cheap HD-DVD's.

And any Sony payout to Warner is still just a rumor. There has never been any confirmation on it, not even from "unnamed" or "inside" sources...just analysts rehashing rumors that rampant at the time of the WB announcement based on the fact that Toshiba  had made a huge offer to them (and FOX supposedly).